Arguing Necessary Versus Sufficient On Abortion

RedState.com (3.0) ^ | 10 June 2008 | .cnI redruM

[.cnI redruM]

At one point in his career, Doug Kmiec may have been a worthy professor of law, whose instincts were based on sound judgment and impeccable logic. Then the poor man took a flyer on Barak Obama. Having read the logical contortions Kmiec finds himself forced into while justifying Barak Obama’s position on abortion, I find the man more qualified to win The World Twister Championship.

He starts his latest effort by making us wonder why anyone, as a practicing Catholic, would care what the idiot behind the pulpit was saying during a sermon.

"As a matter of Catholic teaching, who’s right? None of us. Who’s wrong? Also, none of us. Catholic teaching simply does not supply a single, definitive answer."

So why not just chuck it professor? Could you give us a single, definitive answer to that one? If a religion doesn’t teach you the difference between right and wrong, in clear and distinct terms, there are better ways you could spend your tithing allowance.

I haven’t ever prayed to God in hopes of receiving a non-responsive missal, cloaked in the weasel-words of non-definitiveness. God is either omnipotent, or he’s just another bum on the plush.

Kmiec’s powers of reasoning flower into full and putrid blossom when he argues that Catholics shouldn’t vote against Barak Obama because of his support of upholding Roe v. Wade. His deliberate obfuscation of the difference between a necessary logical condition and a sufficient logical condition takes the cake for sending us a non-responsive missal, cloaked in the weasel-words of hoping there won’t be any changes.

Given that abortion is an intrinsic evil without justification, thinking the overturning of Roe “solves” the abortion problem, when it does not, can mislead Catholics into the erroneous conclusion that any candidate unwilling to pledge reversal of Roe is categorically unworthy of support.

I agree strongly with Professor Kmiec’s assertion that overturning Roe v. Wade doesn’t solve the abortion problem in and of itself. It is a necessary condition to limit the number of abortions performed, but is not legally or morally sufficient to accomplish the task. Like the heroic efforts of D-Day, overturning Roe v. Wade would only be the end of the beginning.

With Roe v. Wade out of the way, the deliberate misappropriation of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, and the so-called right to privacy skulking in the penumbras thereof, would not longer render a state law limiting abortions facially invalid. There would be no valid standing for a plaintiff to assail state jurisprudence in a case such as Planned Parenthood v. Casey.

In other words, getting Roe v. Wade overturned would allow states to conduct debates on abortion. Laws would still have to be passed and enforced. The debate on the morality and legality of abortion would commence after such a reversal of USSC precedent.

In several states, abortion would become an illegal medical procedure. In several others, laws such as those supported by then Illinois State Senator Barak Obama that condone partial birth abortion, would be successfully enacted over the dead body of basic decency and goodness. Here is a description of how late-term an abortion Barak Obama political supports.

This is a procedure, performed in late-term pregnancies, where a fetus is extracted from the uterus via the birth canal by the legs. The head of the child is left inside the mother until after the infant's brains have been sucked out. All the while the poor child is kicking and flailing. Many lives that are destroyed this way are past the point at which they are viable outside the womb.

Assuming the American electorate’s views on abortion remained unchanged, what would happen in the absence of Roe v. Wade is similar to what happened to alcohol laws in the absence of The Prohibition Amendment. There would be “dry” states and unlimited abortion states. Most states would adopt a stance somewhere on a continuum between the two polar opposites.

If Professor Kmiec cared in the slightest about getting rid of abortion, he would realize that Roe v. Wade was a road block to any serious discussion of the issue outside of the USSC. It’s ban would initiate a discussion of abortion that is thirty-four years and 38 million dead babies too late.

Cross-Posted At: THE MINORITY REPORT

[.cnI redruM]

It must be fun publically debunking your own intellect to justify your support of Barak Obama.

[HKMk23]

On behalf of all the Little Ones...

1  Who is this who comes from Edom,
   With garments of glowing colors from Bozrah,
   This One who is majestic in His apparel,
   Marching in the greatness of His strength?
  "It is I who speak in righteousness, mighty to save." 
2  Why is Your apparel red,
   And Your garments like the one who treads in the wine press? 
3 "I have trodden the wine trough alone,
   And from the peoples there was no man with Me 
   I also trod them in My anger
   And trampled them in My wrath;
   And their lifeblood is sprinkled on My garments,
   And I stained all My raiment. 
4 "For the day of vengeance was in My heart,
   And My year of redemption has come. 
5 "I looked, and there was no one to help,
   And I was astonished and there was no one to uphold;
   So My own arm brought salvation to Me,
   And My wrath upheld Me. 
6 "I trod down the peoples in My anger
   And made them drunk in My wrath,
   And I poured out their lifeblood on the earth."
-- Isaiah 63:1-6 NASB

[.cnI redruM]

There was a time when most of American would have gotten what you were talking about. Something about trampling the vintages where the grapes of wrath were stored....

[.cnI redruM]

argh...vineyards where the grapes of wrath were stored.

[AnAmericanMother]

You were right the first time.

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord:
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored;
He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword:
His truth is marching on.

Sing it - the other doesn't work. (The Wilhousky arrangement is best - totally over the top.)

[.cnI redruM]

Thank you for the correction. Good catch.

[HKMk23]

Those who need to get it still get it. Those who have ears to hear, hear, and those who have eyes to see, see.

I don’t know whether I’ll see it in my lifetime, but I’m all but certain that my kids will.

Trying to pick out the threads is like trying to build a full-motion stained glass window, where each time you grab a piece to put it in place, by the time you reach over to put it in position, the shape of the opening, and it’s location have both changed, and the piece of glass in your hand is now a different color, and has changed shape to fit a dfferent hole somewhere else in the window.

Fortunately, we have an advanced copy of the overall plan, so we can follow along. Just don’t lose your place in the script. Timing is crucial.